Federal budget cuts to hit Rhode Island community action agencies

Tuesday

Aug 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM

PROVIDENCE — The eight community action agencies that use federal dollars to help Rhode Island’s needy will likely see a 6.3-percent reduction in funding next year because of the cuts taking place under...

Randal Edgar RandyEdgar1

PROVIDENCE — The eight community action agencies that use federal dollars to help Rhode Island’s needy will likely see a 6.3-percent reduction in funding next year because of the cuts taking place under what’s known as sequestration.

In a hearing before state lawmakers Monday, state officials said they expect Rhode Island to receive about $3.5 million next year through the federal Community Services Block Grant program.

That’s the same amount the state received this year, because this was actually the first year affected by the automatic federal cuts. But by using “carryover money” and administrative dollars, the state was able to maintain the same level of funding to the regional agencies, said Deborah Anthes, assistant administrator for the state Department of Human Services.

That will not be the case in the coming year, should the federal cut that took effect this year continue — as expected — into fiscal 2014, she said.

The reduction had members of the House and Senate finance committees asking what the state can do to make sure the money is spent wisely as it goes out to the regional agencies, which came to be during the 1960s during the war on poverty and serve distinct areas such as Providence, the Blackstone Valley, the East Bay and South County.

In response, Sandra Powell, executive director of the state Department of Human Services, pointed to several measures that show how the programs are performing under federal guidelines — for example, how well they are helping people to become more self-sufficient and how well they are helping them to improve their quality of life.

Powell also said the eight regional agencies are allowed to tailor programs, with Department of Human Services input, to meet local needs, as they help people with everything from employment issues to food, clothing, education and health care. During 2012, “more than 115,000 Rhode Islanders were touched through these eight community agencies,” she said.

The agencies are funded based on the total population and the number of people living below the poverty level within their jurisdictions, Anthes said. That amounts to 129,852 people statewide — or more than 10 percent of the state’s population, according to the report presented to lawmakers.

The cut to each agency will be proportional, based on how much they would have received, Anthes said.

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